The Mech Touch

The Cerebral King was a powerhouse among the fish-whales. It was not weak by any means before the humans had arrived.

Now, with the help of the outsiders, the powerful king fish had taken not one, but two major leaps in strength!

The first leap was obtaining a human starship-grade power reactor. This substantially increased the Evolution King's firepower and massively extended its endurance.

The second leap was absorbing hundreds of kilograms of phasewater! Even though its enormous body was not able to digest and integrate all of it right away, it had already gained enough benefits to perform relatively basic but powerful tricks.

At this time, the Cerebral King took action in order to preserve the combined force or more precisely its own soldiers.

While many of the Evolvers had taken advantage of the water pools to absorb as much phasewater as their bodies could bear, few of them were able to harness it effectively.

Their bodies also weren't immune to the damaging effects of spatial disturbances. While it became a bit harder for the Phase King and its elite Phasers to manipulate the immediate space around their bodies, they were masters of their art and were able to overcome a lot of resistance by combining and overlapping their exertions.

Such strange and inexplicable means of attack made a lot of mech pilots helpless.

Each of them spent the majority of their training on preparing to fight against hostile mechs.

Only recently did they learn how to fight against alien forces. However, there was such a great variety of alien threats in the Red Ocean that it was impossible for them to account for every possible type of enemy!

It was still possible for them to keep their cool when fighting against most fish-whales. The Swarmers they defeated before were tricky solely due to their numbers. Their attack methods were extremely basic and their tactics and coordination were too primitive to mention.

The Phasers were different! Their ordinary members didn't seem so bright, but the elites that the Phase King had nurtured with great effort were obviously different. They not only displayed great coordination, but also possessed full mastery of their phasewater-derived powers.

The threat they posed against Task Force Fisherman was great!

Just the Phase King alone could wipe out a majority of the mechs before they could sufficiently spread out. Only the expert mechs were able to resist the spatial disturbances, and even then the strain on the willpower of the expert pilots was too great.

Out of the entire combined force, only the Cerebral King was able to match against its former brother!

"Protect the Cerebral King! Keep up the pressure against the Phase King but watch out for its subordinates!"

Task Force Fisherman and the Evolvers were already in the process of retreating from the Lake Continent.

None of them had any further thoughts about emptying the remaining reserves of phasewater. It pained Ves a lot to leave hundreds if not thousands of kilograms of phasewater untouched, but his forces had already completed their main goal at this time!

Rather than getting too greedy and risk ruination, Ves would rather settle for his existing gains and focus on getting back to his fleet alive rather than dead!

"That Phase King is really angry at us! It is chasing after us regardless of the vulnerable state of its territory!"

Ves cursed under his breath as he saw the Phase King along with half of its troupe continuing their pursuit.

The angry Phasers were utterly driven by the need to get back their stolen plunder!

The next few minutes turned into a tense affair. The large group of mechs and Evolvers desperately beat a retreat. Any machine or fish-whale with ranged attack capabilities continued to pour all of their firepower towards the Phasers, but it was difficult for their attacks to threaten the fiendishly well-protected pursuers.

However, the constant attacks were having an effect on the Phasers. The more the fish-whales had to focus on defending themselves against the incoming firepower, the less they were able to focus their efforts on attacking the fleeing group!

This led to a situation where both sides were trying their best to consume each other. Commander Casella had already lowered her Commander Field since it was no longer necessary for her to provide protection to her fellow mechs.

The Cerebral King had turned into a living dimension smoother as its massive form anchored the surrounding space.

Sure, it was only one fish-whale against many, but the power of an ancient king fish should not be underestimated.

The Cerebral King clearly didn't look good though as it was constantly fighting an invisible battle against the hundreds of Phasers that were still trying their best to kill or hinder the thieves that had stolen much of their precious phasewater!

Ves tried his best to determine how long either side could hold on. The Evolvers might be powerful in their own ways, but they were of limited help in this instance.

Only a number of Evolvers such as the silver fish-whale were able to assist the Cerebral King in neutralizing the spatial attacks launched by the Phasers.

The rest may have absorbed varying amounts of phasewater, but they were complete novices in their usage of this high-quality substance. Their organs warmed up and became filled with power, but any reckless exertion of their newly-activated phasewater-derived abilities was liable to cause accidents!

Soon, a mighty but foreign presence encompassed the fleeing group.

VIOLATORS! GODBLOOD! DEATH!

The Phase King had spoken!

UNWORTHY. TRAITOR. DESERVED.

The Cerebral King was not to be outdone, though. Even though it was under immense pressure to defend its group, it was still able to respond to its archenemy.

ANNIHILATION! DESTRUCTION! DESECRATION!

The argument between the two powerful aliens devolved into a shouting match that sounded painfully childish and primitive to Ves.

Fortunately, many humans were spared from listening to this tortuous alien exchange. They lacked the sensitivity that allowed them to pick up the alien speech.

Even if a handful of people such as Patriarch Reginald and Venerable Tusa possessed minds that were developed enough to hear the two king fishes hurling insults at each other, they did not understand the fish-whale language at all, so all they perceived was gibberish.

Only Ves and Joshua were able to follow the heated exchange of words. They shared helpless glances at each other as they both tried to determine how they could shake off the Phasers.

"Sir, I don't think we can keep running like this." Venerable Joshua eventually said. "I'm not sure how long the Cerebral King, but it is getting increasingly more tired. Those Phaser fish-whales have clearly lost their minds and are hellbent on destroying us so that they can take back their lost phasewater."

"What are you saying, Joshua?"

"We should turn and fight them before we get any more tired."

"..."

Ves could not make a decision. He did not have enough information and the chaos of the battlefield was affecting his judgment.

He decided to open a private channel with Commander Casella Ingvar and Patriarch Reginald Cross in order to discuss their options.

"I say we fight!" Patriarch Reginald predictably answered. "This isn't the first time that I have fought against pursuers. We can't let them drive us to exhaustion like this. The longer this chase goes on, the more our morale will drop. Only by turning around and fighting them in an upright manner will we be able to break the chase! We don't have to kill them all. We just need to inflict a blow that is heavy enough to stop them in their tracks."

"This is too risky." Commander Casella disagreed. "The Phaser fish-whales possess attack means that are difficult for us to fight against. We are not sufficiently trained or prepared to fight against these kinds of opponents. I have already felt the strength of the enemy myself when I attempted to shield our mechs from the spatial disturbances. If the fight gets intense enough, my ability to help our mechs resist the increasingly more powerful attacks will not be able to keep everyone safe."

"This is the battlefield! It is impossible to keep everyone alive! If we let these Phasers chase us while consuming our strength, none of us will make it back. If we choose to fight them at this time, we have a better chance of ending the pursuit while retaining enough lives."

Ves frowned and tried to figure out whether it was worthwhile to stall for time or fight a decisive battle.

While this was going on, the two king fishes became increasingly more furious at each other as they traded alien barbs with each other.

ALWAYS WEAK. ALWAYS FOOLISH. PATHETIC. CAN ONLY STEAL TO SURVIVE.

TRAITOR! HERETIC! TOO MUCH GODBLOOD BUT TOO WEAK AND STUPID TO ABSORB IT ALL. FAILED KIN!

UNTRUE! MUCH MORE GODBLOOD IN MY BODY THAN YOURS! TRUE HEIR OF GOD!

LIES! HERESY! MUST DIE NOW! OUR LONG FEUD WILL END TODAY! ANSWER FOR YOUR CRIMES!

The Cerebral King no longer ran away from the chasers.

Instead, the massive creature stopped and turned around, much to the surprise of the humans.

"What is it doing?!"

"Wait… is it going on the attack?"

"Damnit, what do we do?!"

As the Cerebral King chose to confront the Phasers, everyone else had to stop as well. The other Evolver fish-whales no longer fled either. They all slowed down and gathered around their sovereign.

The actions of the Evolvers forced the humans mechs to slow down as well.

Even though Ves was tempted to order the task force to continue with its flight, he knew that was not a viable idea.

Although the Phase King looked as if it wanted to do nothing more than to tear apart the Cerebral King, it was still paying a lot of attention to the various shuttles and mechs holding sealed containers of phasewater.

The Phase Kingdom's main priority at this time was to get back the stolen goods!

If the humans carrying a lot of plundered phasewater dared to flee without the help of their alien allies, a lot of elite Phasers would definitely separate from their king and pursue the task force!

Commander Casella soon issued a bunch of new orders. "Prepare for a serious round of battle. We can't leave without defeating the Phasers. Melee units, try your best to accompany the Cerebral King without getting too close. The king fish's stabilizing field can shelter you from the enemy's spatial attacks. Take advantage of this protection and pressure the elite Phaser fish-whales when they are at their weakest. Ranged units, spread out and keep building up more distance. The Phasers aren't able to attack beyond a certain range while our weapons are not so limited in this vacuum environment. I only need you to reach a sufficient distance and fire at the enemy at full power. Don't pay attention to consumption this time. If we cannot win at this juncture, none of us will return alive!"

As everyone got into position, the Cerebral King already took the initiative to charge towards its enemy counterpart!

The Phase King did not charge forward but concentrated all of its efforts on attacking its rival! It knew that it needed to exert its full strength against its rival.

The pressure on the mechs and Evolvers diminished after that, giving them a much-needed reprieve. Although the elite Phaser fish-whales still kept up their efforts, their abilities were not as strong!

"Advance! Don't let the Evolvers fight against the Phasers alone!"

The melee mechs of the task force quickly flew forward in order to catch up with the Cerebral King and its soldiers.

Leading this charge was the Bolvos Rage!

The problem was that the powerful expert mech wasn't heading towards the cluster of elite Phaser fish-whales.

Instead, it was following nearly the same as the Cerebral King!

"Hahaha!" Reginald laughed as he completely became absorbed in the moment. "Only you can be a worthy opponent! Give me a challenge!"

The high-tier expert pilot resolutely approached the coming collision between two titanic alien creatures without fearing the consequences!

Ves became aghast at this sight. The disparity in power was way too much!

"What the hell are you doing, Reginald?! You can't interfere in a confrontation at this level!"

It was too bad that the Cross Patriarch wasn't even listening to Ves. The expert pilot only had red in his eyes and blood in his nose. He could not be persuaded to call off his approach unless the Phase King truly made him feel despair!